[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 212 (Thursday, November 1, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55242-55243]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-27405]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration


Denial of a Petition for a Defect Investigation, DP01-001

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 
Department of Transportation.

ACTION: Denial of petition for a defect investigation.

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SUMMARY: This notice sets forth the reasons for the denial of a 
petition submitted to NHTSA under 49 U.S.C. 30162, requesting that the 
agency investigate an alleged safety-related defect in certain Ford 
Escort and Mercury Tracer vehicles. The petition is hereinafter 
identified as DP01-001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Peter C. Ong, Office of Defects 
Investigation, NHTSA, 400 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, D.C. 20590. 
Telephone: (202) 366-0583.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Mr. Randy D. Brantley (petitioner) submitted 
a petition to NHTSA by letter dated February 13, 2001, requesting that 
a safety-related defect investigation be initiated with respect to the 
non-deployment of the frontal air bags in frontal crashes in model 
years (MY) 1998 through 1999 Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer passenger 
vehicles. Specifically, the petitioner alleges that he had noticed in 
NHTSA's consumer complaint database that there were many reports of 
both driver and passenger side air bags not deploying upon impact. 
Since both the MY 1998 and 1999 Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer have the 
same frontal passive restraint system, they are treated as the subject 
vehicles in this analysis.
    The frontal air bag supplemental restraint system, when used with 
safety belts, is part of the vehicle's frontal occupant protection 
system that includes the vehicle's structural crumble zone, interior 
structure design/padding, instrument panel (IP) padding, and the energy 
absorbing steering wheel. As a supplemental restraint system, the air 
bag restraints reduce the risk of severe injuries and fatalities in 
frontal impacts. The air bags are designed to deploy and inflate in 
impacts that generate sufficient longitudinal deceleration to 
potentially cause moderate to serious injury to the vehicle's front 
seat occupants. Frontal air bags are not designed to deploy in side, 
rear, or rollover crashes or in frontal impacts that generate low 
longitudinal deceleration (such as low speed impacts and ``soft'' 
impacts that result in sheet metal deformation as opposed to major 
chassis/structural damage).
    Manufacturers set deployment thresholds to enhance protection of 
the frontal occupants in severe frontal collisions such that the 
deployment of the air bags would help reduce the risk of serious injury 
or fatality. Likewise, the threshold is designed to prevent deployment 
in less severe collisions where air bag deployment is not likely to 
provide substantial benefits. The risk of injury during air bag 
deployment, particularly with respect to unbelted or out-of-position 
occupants, also provides a sound basis for setting the threshold to 
prevent deployment in less severe collisions. Manufacturers may select 
the deployment threshold that they believe is the most appropriate.
    Real-world collisions often involve offset impacts, oblique angle 
impacts, override or underride impacts. These different impacts may or 
may not generate sufficient force and deceleration along the front to 
rear axis of the vehicle or apply significant force to the frame, 
suspension and engine to initiate air bag inflation. This can lead 
consumers to expect that the air bag should deploy in certain crashes 
resulting in significant body damage to the vehicle when in fact the 
crash force along the front to rear axis of the vehicle was not 
sufficient to deploy the air bags. The misconceptions about the 
criteria for deployment have caused allegations of non-deployment to be 
the most common type of air bag-related complaint reported to NHTSA.
    When reviewing allegations of improper air bag non-deployment, 
NHTSA investigators analyze (1) The extent of vehicle frontal damage 
through pictures, repair invoices, and/or police accident reports, (2) 
the medical records to ascertain type and severity of personal injury, 
and (3) technical information that may indicate systematic or component 
related defect trends that lead to the non-deployment of the air bags.
    A review of the agency's data files, including information reported 
to the DOT Auto Safety Hotline, shows 72 complaints of non-deployment 
in the subject vehicles. Thirty-nine of these complaints alleged 
injuries due to the non-deployment. (In the manufacturer's database, 
only 44 of the 278 owner reports/crash claims/litigation cases alleged 
injury associated with air bag non-deployments.) NHTSA attempted to 
contact all of the 39 complainants who alleged injury, plus some of the 
more recent complainants who did not specify any injury, to request 
additional crash and/or injury information. The follow-up contacts 
provided additional crash and injury information from 34 complainants.
    NHTSA reviewed its crash reports and Ford's information, including 
crash damage, vehicle crash dynamics, and injury severity, and did not 
find any trend or pattern of air bags in the subject vehicles failing 
to deploy in crashes when they should have deployed. The crashes were 
minor in nature and many of them were underride impacts into the rear 
of pickup trucks, which typically result in major deformation of the 
vehicle's hood and upper regions of the fenders that absorbs much of 
the crash energy. It should be noted that a complaint often alleges an 
impact speed higher than what the damage indicates, since pre-impact 
braking will often slow the vehicle down dramatically prior to impact, 
and a driver will often not have any reliable way to estimate the 
actual impact speed.
    Furthermore, NHTSA's analysis of the injuries experienced by the 
occupants of the subject vehicles does not suggest that deployment of 
the air bags in the subject vehicles in these crashes would have 
provided significant benefit. The injuries were minor in nature. All 
but one were AIS-1 (Abbreviated Injury Scale) severity injuries, with 
one AIS-2 severity injury (broken nose).
    NHTSA reviewed Ford's developmental tests on air bag deployments 
and found that the frontal air bags in the subject vehicles deploy at 
an impact velocity comparable to other passenger vehicles. Ford reports 
that the air bag system in the subject vehicles are designed not to 
deploy when a vehicle is operated on rough roads and not to deploy 
under ``soft'' impacts that damage sheet metal but do

[[Page 55243]]

not impact hard points on the vehicle such as the frame, suspension, 
and engine. Many of the ``underride'' crashes that ODI reviewed fall 
into this ``soft'' impact category, and air bag deployment was not 
appropriate under the circumstances.
    For the foregoing reasons, and in view of the need to allocate and 
prioritize NHTSA's limited resources to best accomplish the agency's 
safety mission, the petition for a defect investigation is denied.

    Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30162(d); delegations of authority at CFR 
1.50 and 501.8.

    Issued on: October 25, 2001.
Kenneth N. Weinstein,
Associate Administrator for Safety Assurance.
[FR Doc. 01-27405 Filed 10-31-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-59-P